The Annales School and the Environmental History of Latin America*
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The Annales School and the Environmental History of Latin America* ALEJANDRO TORTOLERO VILLASEÑOR Profesor de la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Iztapalapa (México). Correo electónico: tor- [email protected]. El autor es doctor en Historia y Civilizaciones de la Escuela de Altos Estu- dios en Ciencias Sociales de París (Francia). Entre sus publicaciones recientes tenemos: “canales de riego y canales navegables en la cuenca de México: economía, patrimonio y paisaje en el México porfi rista” en Historia Caribe Vol. X, No. 26 (2015) y “Francois Chevalier y los grandes latifundios: algunas aportaciones de una obra maestra en el contexto de dos tradiciones analíticas”, en Boletín de la AFEHC No. 62, (Ju- lio-Septiembre, 2014). Entre sus temas de interés est.án la historia económica, tecnológica y ecológica de México, siglos XVIII al XX. Recibido: 6 de mayo de 2015 Aprobado: 10 de junio de 2016 Modifi cado: 15 de julio de 2016 Artículo de investigación científi ca DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15648/hc.30.2016.01 * Este artículo forma parte del proyecto: “Para una historia ambiental de México” fi nanciado por la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Iztapalapa (México). 301 Esta publicación está bajo una licencia Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial 4.0 Historia Caribe - Volumen XII N° 30 - Enero-Junio 2017 pp 301-340 ALEJANDRO TORTOLERO VILLASEÑOR The Annales School and the Environmental History of Latin America Abstract There are different infl uences in Environmental Latin-American History. From the his- torical demography to anthropology, this discipline has been benefi t from Cook and Bo- rah’s contributions to Carl Sauer’s. In this article, my contribution consists in broading the spectrum towards the European infl uence and particularly to the so-called Annales School. While it is true that this movement had a strong infl uence in Latin-American History, in contrast, in Environment Historians, such infl uence has not been compara- ble to quantity history or the history of prices. My purpose is to analyze the roots of this infl uence in Latin America, their scope and limits. Key Words: environment, history, France, Latin America Annales e historia ambiental: encuentros y desencuentros en América Latina Resumen Existen distintas infl uencias en la historia ambiental latinoamericana. Desde la de- mografía histórica hasta la antropología, esta disciplina se ha benefi ciado de los aportes de Cook y Borah hasta Carl Sauer. En este artículo mi contribución consistirá en am- pliar el espectro hacia la infl uencia europea y particularmente hacia la llamada Escuela de Annales. Si bien es cierto esta corriente tuvo una fuerte infl uencia en la historia latinoamericana, en cambio, en los historiadores del medio ambiente su infl uencia no ha sido equiparable al de la historia cuantitativa o la historia de los precios. Mi objetivo será analizar las raíces de esta infl uencia en latinoamérica, sus alcances y sus límites. Palabras clave: ambiente, historia, Francia, América Latina. Annales e história ambiental: encontros e desencuentros em América Latina Resumo Existem diferentes infl uências na história ambiental latinoamericana. Desde a de- mografía histórica até a antropologia, esta disciplina benefi ciou-se de contribua-os de 302 Cook e Borah até Carl Sauer. Neste artigo minha contribuição consistirá em ampliar o espectro para a infl uência européia e particularmente para a chamada Escola de An- nales. Conquanto é verdadeiro esta corrente teve uma forte infl uência na história latino- Historia Caribe - Volumen XII N° 30 - Enero-Junio 2017 pp 301-340 THE ANNALES SCHOOL AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF LATIN AMERICA americana, em mudança, em os historiadores do meio ambiente sua infl uência não tem sido equiparable ao da história quantitativa ou a história dos preços. Meu objetivo será analisar as raízes desta infl uência em latinoamérica, seus alcances e seus limites. Palavras chave: ambiente, história, França, América Latina. Annales et histoire de l’environnement: accords et désaccords en Amérique Latine Il existe d’infl uences diverses dans l’histoire environnementale de l’Amérique Latine. De la démographie historique à l’anthropologie, cette discipline a été bénéfi ciée des contributions de Cook et Borah et Carl Sauer. Dans cet article, j’envisage d’élargir le champ vers l’infl uence européenne, et plus particulièrement, vers l’école des Annales. Il est certain que ce courant a eu une forte infl uence sur l’histoire latino-américaine, alors que pour les historiens de l’environnement l’infl uence de celle-ci n’est pas comparable avec l’histoire quantitative ou l’histoire des prix. Mon objectif vise à analyser les racines de cette infl uence en Amérique Latine, ses portés et ses limites. Most Clés: environnement, histoire, France, Amérique Latine. INTRODUCTION This paper reviews the infl uence of the French Annales School in the de- velopment of Latin American environmental historiography. I argue that while it is true that this school had a strong infl uence on Latin American history, for environmental historians this infl uence has not been compa- rable to that of quantitative history or the history of prices. Perhaps the origin of this situation can be traced to the school itself. While historians like Worster (1988),Crosby (1995) and Guha (1993)1 recognize an affi lia- tion between the Annales School and environmental history to the point where Guha makes Marc Bloch a model for ecological history, for Gen- eviève Massard this is not as clear and is ultimately a misunderstanding. 303 1 This work has benefi tted from the comments of Maurice Aymard, the working group on Historia Ambiental Latinoamericana, 2nd WEHC-Guimaraes and SEHAM-México. Historia Caribe - Volumen XII N° 30 - Enero-Junio 2017 pp 301-340 ALEJANDRO TORTOLERO VILLASEÑOR My objective here is to analyze this presumed misunderstanding, examine the roots of its infl uence in Latin America, particularly in Mexico, its ex- tent and its limitations2. 1. ANNALES AND THE ENVIRONMENT If we were to emphasize the relationship between the Annales School and the environment, we would begin by saying that in its quest for totality, this school assumed that history was predetermined, at least partially, by external forces to man that were not always neutral or foreign to him forc- es that are partly physical, visible, and practically immovable such as the geography or climate. Where Durkheim and Berr integrated philosophy and sociology into the history, Vidal de la Blache and his pupil Lucien Gallois, Lucien Febvre’s professor in the École Normale Supérieure, made social history an inte- gral part of geography. Through their efforts, agriculture became a gate- way to Annales. With this opening, an analysis of the “active and passive” aspects of the relationship between man and earth began. This reciprocal relationship of infl uences between nature and man resulted in the study of a way of life derived from the relationship between the environment and the social structure3. For example, in his doctoral thesis Philippe II et la Franche-Comte (1911)4, Lucien Febvre conducts a detailed examination of the geographical envi- ronment and specifi cally of its agrarian base, which serves to clarify many 2 Donald Worster (ed.), The ends of the earth (Cambridge: University Press, 1988). Alfred Cros- by, “The past and present of environmental history”, American Historical Review Vol. 100 No. 4 (1995): 1177-1189. Ramachandra Guha, The fi ssured land: an ecological history of India (USA: University of California, 1993). 3 For a relation between Braudel and the reciprocal infl uences on Brazilian environmental history, see, J. R. McNeil, J.A Padua and M. Rangarajan, Environmental history, as if nature existed (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 4, 5. On the matter of a manuscript on the history of Brazil that Braudel did not publish, Maurice Aymard’s response is that Braudel never redacted it. See Carlos 304 Aguirre Rojas, “Braudel en las Américas. Ensayo de comparación de dos intercambios transcultura- les”, Signos Históricos Vol. 3 No. 2 (2000): 58. 4 Peter Burke (ed.), Economy and society in early modern Europe: essays from Annales (New York: Harper and Row, 1972). Historia Caribe - Volumen XII N° 30 - Enero-Junio 2017 pp 301-340 THE ANNALES SCHOOL AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF LATIN AMERICA aspects concerning the structure of social relationships and the psycho- logical attitudes of the inhabitants of the region. Later, in La terre et l’evolu- tion humaine (1927)5 he calls upon geohistory where the environment plays a pivotal role not only in the movement of goods but also in the evolution of ideas. Marc Bloch, for his part, strongly embraces geohistory, and in his classic work Les caractéres originaux de l’histoire rurale française (1931)6, he illustrates the agrarian landscapes of the Middle Ages, crop rotation, tillage methods, seeds, land claims, cultivation camps, tools, and farmhouses. This work illustrates the division in Europe between the cultivation of crops using a two-fi eld system or a three-year rotation as well as plowing techniques and the enormous importance of the abandonment of fallowing after the adoption of forage crops in the eighteenth century. In his later work Apologie pour l’histoire ou Metien d’historien (1949)7, posthu- mously published, Bloch tells us of a defi nitive way of understanding the landscape. He states: “But let us be aware once more of assuming a falsely geometric parallelism between the natural sciences and a science of men. From the view I have from my window, every scientist takes his own without concerning himself much with the bigger picture. The physicist explains the blue of the sky; the chemist, the water stream; the botanist, the grass. They leave the restoration of the landscape in the hands of others. This appears to me art should the painter or poet take on the responsibility of restoring the land.